


Dimension Between Dimenions

by LaughingThalia



Series: Epic [2]
Category: DCU, DCU (Comics), Heroes in Crisis (DCU Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Red Hood/Arsenal (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Canon, Betrayal, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Crime Boss Jason Todd, DC Comics Rebirth, F/M, Gang Violence, Gangs, Gotham, Gotham City - Freeform, Gotham City is Terrible, Gun Violence, Revenge, Secrets, Team Bonding, Team Dynamics, Team as Family, Teambuilding, The Iceberg Lounge, The Mob, will they won't they
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:28:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27464950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaughingThalia/pseuds/LaughingThalia
Summary: ---"Next time I get left for dead... actually leave me for dead."---Alternative take on what Jason was doing during Rebirth Red Hood and the Outlaws/ Red Hood: Outlaw Annual #2 and issues #30-40 whilst Artemis and Bizarro were gone.AKAWhat Jason was doing during part 1 of the series; The Epic of Artemis.
Relationships: Artemis of Bana-Mighdall/Jason Todd, Isabel Ardila/Jason Todd, jason roy - Relationship
Series: Epic [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1709248
Kudos: 8





	1. Chapter 1: Back On Your Feet

**Author's Note:**

> Part 2 in the Epic series, kind of an inbetweenquel of Epic of Artemis 1 and Epic of Artemis 2.

_ I was beaten to death with a crowbar when I was a kid. Even that didn’t hurt as bad as I feel right now. You might think I’d be gunning for revenge. I’d even settle for funtionality at this point. _

Jason discharged his weapon as he always had, feet shoulder’s width apart, arm held out straight in front of him, his aim lined up to hit the coconut that Roy had drawn a face on and started calling Wilson that was sitting there unshot after 10 consecutive attempts to shoot it. Just like the other ten times, he missed and the recoil sent him flying backwards onto his ass and onto the sand which thankfully cushioned his fall. Although with his fractured arm still in its cast and his bruised body, the sand didn’t bring much relief to the Red Hood’s aching body.

A shadow descended on Jason and blocked out the scorching sun, “Seriously Jaybird?” Roy asked sarcastically, crouching down half to make fun of the former Robin and half to check on him. “When I said you needed to lie still, I meant in a bed.” He stood up, exposing Jason once again to the element and held out a hand “Come on let’s get you up and back inside, who knows how many stitches you’ve ripped open with that stunt. Let’s just hope you didn’t get sand in them too.”

“I’m fine Roy.” Jason sighed, taking his hand all the same and letting himself be dragged to his feet He winced as the movement jolted his everything “I appreciate the help but I-”

“-don’t need it? Keep telling yourself that Jaybird.” Roy scoffed as he swung Jason’s arm around his shoulders and basically carried Jason back to the old Tamaranean star cruiser they were currently using as their base. “You’d heal a lot faster if you actually took it easy for once.”

“I need to stay in shape, if I get out of practice, I get dead.”

“You can’t even shoot Wilson right now, I think you’re passed the bounds of being ‘out of practice’. Will you just sit down for one week? One week won’t kill you.”

“Why don’t you get back to whatever super-secret project you were working on and stop bugging me.”

“I’ve been working on it every day for the past three weeks I’m sure I can leave it for one day.”

Jason sighed, “Roy.. next time I’m left for dead,  _ leave me for dead _ .”

“Fine whatever, I’m off to save the world, by myself. With nobody else. Just me.” Roy disappeared into a door with a hastily scribbled sign on it that read  _ ‘super top secret project stay out’ _ and another that read ‘ _ no Jasons allowed beyond this point’ _ . 

Jason had had a hard time going up anything for the past three weeks so he hadn’t explored much of the ship. Explored was probably the wrong word, he used to live there after all, he knew the place like the back of his hand but it had been a long time since he’d been back. It felt weird walking around it again. When he reached the cockpit he was scared by the floating image of Starfire, the first lady of the Outlaws, before he clocked that it was a hologram. Of course she wouldn’t be here; that version of the Outlaws is no more. The Outlaws are no more.

“I am sorry that I am not here right now to talk to you in person. I’m doing important things in space right now but I let some messages in case certain people needed help. Jason Todd, I’m sorry I can not help you with whatever problem brought you back home but you should always feel like your among family here.”

“Yeah right.” Jason muttered to himself, “because I’ve always been  _ so _ good with family.”

Jason slumped into the chair and lazily pressed a few buttons on the futuristic alien hologram table that took up half the room. He’d had Roy up here basically everyday running a trace on Bizarro on Artemis but he needed to see it for himself, maybe just so he could say he really did try to find them and maybe because he just wanted to hurt so much until he felt numb. The scan came up empty, again. As expected. It’s not like Roy would have been lying to him about this for three weeks. The computer could apparently scan not just the world or the universe but the known multiverse and in all 52 freaking versions of their crazy messed up universe it couldn’t find a single trace of either Outlaw. Jason slammed his good hand on to the table, causing the holograms to flicker and flash red for a second before returning to normal like he’d never even touched it. “God damn it. Where are they!”

**_[ANALYSIS COMPLETE: NO SIGN OF DESIGNATE: ARTEMIS OF DESIGNATE: BIZARRO ANYWHERE IN THE KNOWN MULTIVERSE]_ **

Jason took Roy’s week. His week of doing nothing, his week of actually healing and not constantly reopening old wounds, literally and metaphorically. He lay around in bed, sometimes researching what was going on in Gotham, but mostly just watching old shows that he missed while he was dead and finally understanding references from his childhood spent not watching Disney Channel. He even managed to read a few classics, although he avoided all of the crime novels and Catcher in the Rye like they were the plague. He didn’t need to be reminded of crimes and lost innocence right now.

On the eighth day, he woke up early, stood up without groaning like an old man and walked to the built in gym. He tested out his arms on a few weights before pulling himself up onto the pull up bar. He missed them. Artemis made him want to be better, Bizarro taught him what it meant to be a person again was. He didn’t care what the computer said, they were out there somewhere and he was going to find them.

Roy found him on the gymnast hoops, doing tentative swings around and around. “Welcome back to the land of the living.” He smiled, looking proud. He held up one of the two cups of coffee he was holding and Jason swung around in a perfect loop, let go and stuck the landing on the mat below. It was a move Dick would have been proud of.

“A few years too late with that particular salutation, Roy but I appreciate the sentiment.” He took the coffee gratefully and inhaled the caffeine boost. “So this super secret project…?

Roy’s grin worked its way onto his face slowly, “You ready to get back to work?”

Jason’s own lopsided smile, grew in response, “I thought you’d never ask.”


	2. Chapter 2: See You Soon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Well I would have guessed Suzie Su but I’m fairly certain she’s dead-” Jason’s jaw hit the floor as they turned the corner into the intensive care unit...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BTW the beginning will be very similar to canon but my plan does diverge pretty soon. Certain characters will get more play, certain arcs will be more focused on and some things cut out.

Roy briefed him on the way out of the airport in the back of the taxi that they caught to the hospital in Beijing.

“And what’s in Beijing?” Jason asked, quietly, trying to keep quiet enough that the taxi driver couldn’t pick up their words.

“This thing called Underlife. It’s like an umbrella consortium of sorts. The yakuza, mafia, cartels, intergang, pretty much anybody and everybody doing anything large-scale and bad. They’ve all agreed to play by certain rules, it’s actually kind of impressive.”

“That does sound bad, why are  _ we _ the one’s responding to it?” Jason queried as they rode the hospital elevator up a few floors. The implied _ ‘where the fuck is the Justice League’  _ was left unsaid between the two Outlaws and former JL sidekicks.

“Because I tracked a bad shipment of opioids that caused 300 people in the states last week alone to be hospitalised. And guess who I think was responsible.”

“Well I would have guessed Suzie Su but I’m fairly certain she’s dead-” Jason’s jaw hit the floor as they turned the corner into the intensive care unit and saw clear as day Suzie Su lying in a hospital bed and hooked up to monitors and drips and machines.

“When I heard she was here, I thought it was a cover.” Roy explained.

“If that’s the case… you have to admire the commitment.” Jason stepped closer to the glass, squinting as if that would suddenly make the person in the hospital gown, not Suzie Su. She was pretty hard to misidentify with her bright red hair and her large stature. Although of course where Suzie went, the Sisters Su were never far behind.

Their short walk to the elevator was spent in silence until Roy added, “Apparently its catastrophic liver failure.”

Huh.” Jason remarked, “All the times I’ve shot her in the head and this is what kills her.”

Jason realised his mistake only after he’d stepped into the elevator. The blue haired girl, the brunette holding a baby and the side shaved black haired girl in matching white suits were enough to set off alarm bells in his head, it was only when he turned around to leave and saw the blond girl with ombre pink hair and a white nurses uniform that all the pieces fell into place. “Roy, is my mask in that bag?”

Roy handed it to him without another word, having clued into their situation at the exact same time. He pulled his red shades over his eyes and got ready to pop open his bow.

All six of them waited until the elevator doors opened on the roof before making a move, it was almost civilised, the six of them standing there listening to the annoying musik that didn’t fit the situation in the slightest. When the bell finally dinged and the doors slid, open the blue haired girl, Blanc, pulled out two blades; the baby Anastasia had been holding turned out to be a tommy gun; the side shaved girl, Night, pulled on two metal gauntlets with spikes on them and the discount Harley Quinn in the nurse uniform and pink pigtails, Candy, pulled on two brass knuckles, although they were silver and noticeably matched the other Sisters’ weapons. They sure were one for synergy. Not that Red Hood and Red Arrow could talk about synergy much, as a former associate of Batman, he could appreciate good branding. The blue haired one yelled, “Prepare for your imminent death at the hands of the SISTERS SU!”

Roy already had an arrow notched and Jason had already kicked Anastasia in the face before they’d even set foot onto the roof, although the sisters gave as good as they got. Night had a sticky arrow to the face in seconds, but Candy managed to punch Roy a good few times in the face with her silver brass knuckles. Jason was trying to avoid getting shot and stabbed by Anastasia and Blanc and managed to duck out of the way of an incoming blade and send Blanc’s fist flying into her sister’s face, “Give up while you still can ladies.” Jason insisted as the two outlaws faced down the last sister standing, Candy.

Roy looked her up and down with a frown, “She’s gotta be like 14.”

“I’m 16!” Candy insisted, huffing like a petulant child.

“I mean, grown men were meeting both of us up when we were 16.” Jason pointed out, not dropping his fighting stance.

“Not to mention I’m a Su!” Candy charged Jason before he even had a chance to comprehend her moving. He blocked her first punch on instinct alone, and just managed to catch her second one through years of ingrained skill, the kick to the face caught him off guard and his head rolled backwards. “Don’t mess with our sister!”

“I thought you hated your sister!” Jason yelled, clutching his face as he tried to stop his head spinning and his ears ringing.

“She’s still our sister you idiot, we’ll fight to the death for each other no matter how mad we are, besides I’m not exactly worried about some lame American boys.”

Roy came to back him up from behind, intedning to use the element of surprise but getting caught up in her insult, “Lame?”

Candy grabbed Jason’s helmet, pushed his head down to hip level and used his back to leap from over him and out of the way of Roy’s punch, “Absolutely.”

“I’m just trying not to hurt you, kid.”

“Well you’re doing a great job.” She smirked as she landed a sucker punch right across his face.

Candy had bought her sisters enough time to regroup and the two boys suddenly found themselves outnumbered once again.

“I could blow them up.” Roy suggested, grabbing his explosives arrow and a propeller arrow to get them out of the blast zone.

“Definitely do not do that. One second ago you didn’t want to hurt them, now you want to blow everyone up?”

“One second ago, I hadn’t been punched in the face by a 16 yoear old.” Roy huffed, putting his explosive arrow away, “Do you have any suggestions?”

Jason looked around the roof, they could always just jump off the side of the building but he didn’t doubt that they would follow them over the side. “Ladies, how about you just tell us who sent that bad shipment and we’ll be on our way.”

Blanc scoffed whilst Night responded, “How about we compromise. We’ll carve it into your corpses.” Candy smirked at that, looking awfully proud of her older sisters.

Just as they were about to restart their battle, the elevator opened up once more to reveal Suzie Su herself, leaning up against the wall “Enough!” She yelled with the authority of a drill sergeant, “If anyone’s beating up my sisters it’s me!” Candy instead ran over to the elevator to support her sister, looking like a puppy who’s owner had just come home.

Anastasia went to scold her for being up and about. “Suzie, you need your rest!”

Roy agreed with a sympathetic grimace, “They’re right Suzie, we can always beat you up later.”

“You two are even more idiotic than the flying bimbo you used to fight with. The entire shipment was a set up by some American in the Underlife which sucks because it was supposed to be about respecting boundaries and carving out territories.”

“So… you didn’t send in a bunch of bad drugs?”

“No!”

“Oh.. well don’t do it again?”

“What he said.” Roy agreed, confused at the entire situation.

The sisters helped Suzie back into the elevator and Candy stuck her tongue out at them as she left.

Roy and Jason headed home confused as to what they had actually accomplished on their first mission out since the second Outlaw team had disappeared. “It’s not just me who thought that was a colossal waste of time?” Roy asked.

“A waste of time? We got to catch up with our old friend Suzie Su.”

The two burst out laughing for a good 30 seconds before Roy calmed himself down to talk about something more somberly, “I’ve heard of this place… like a rehab for capes… I’ve been thinking of going but I don’t want to leave you when you’re going through so much…”

“I’m always going through something. The way I live if I went to therapy for all my issues, I’d always be in there. My problem is my friends are missing and the shadowing criminal organization that’s on the horizon. Both of those problems need me out there looking for clues. I can’t find Artemis and Bizarro from rehab.”

“We really are a bunch of screw ups.” Roy laughed again.

“The bats feel like they have to put up with me because we’re family, you Roy, you’re the idiot who chose me to be your best friend.”

“So you’re saying I do need therapy?”

“I’m saying we’re Outlaws, that means something. Outlaws forever.”

Roy hugged him tight, “Call me if you need help on this.”

“Don’t worry dude, just get your head on right, I’m sure crime will still be here for us to fight together when you leave.”

“Don’t kick too many butts without me. I’ll see you soon, Jaybird.”


End file.
